Alvin Singleton (First Edition) William Kraft (First Edition): For living American composers, the problem is not merely to get their work performed and recorded; equally daunting is the challenge of keeping the recordings in circulation. The First Edition label is a solution to that problem, reviving and keeping in circulation records of modern American composers that were made and withdrawn by other companies.

Alvin Singleton and William Kraft both deserve such treatment; they have both been closely associated with major orchestras, Singleton as composer in residence with the Atlanta Symphony and Kraft as timpanist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. They are expert and subtle in their manipulation of orchestra sound, and their music has an immediate, strong appeal to open-minded listeners. Originally issued on Nonesuch recordings, this music deserves to be permanently available.

At 22 minutes, "Shadows" is the big work in time and substance. . . . What starts as a meditation explodes into a funky, emotion-laden kind of dance. Audience-friendly yet raw, it's a small masterpiece.

"After Fallen Crumbs," dedicated to the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., starts with big, bleating brass, then gets smaller. There's a curious twist in this six-minute score: insistent timpani strokes compete with the main story line, as if someone were urgently knocking on the door and the dinner guests inside ignored it, as if Death himself were trying to enter. "A Yellow Rose Petal," Singleton's first large orchestra work, contrasts fragile phrases with the bullying power of the full orchestra — exhilarating at its best moments.